Quilting Almost Done on the Schoolhouse Quilt

Next time I do something similar, I gotta match up those scallops.  Those are the sorts of details that don't occur to the novice quilter.  Or at least they don't occur to slap-happy novices like me!

Quilting the Schoolhouse Quilt

I've reached the halfway point, quilting the Schoolhouse quilt.  After reading and watching several books and DVDs on quilting, especially the method of freehand feathering, I gave it another try.  Here are the results.  I can do it!  I can, I can!  Not perfectly (instead of feathers, I inadvertently make hotdogs now and then), but ... I CAN DO IT.

A huge thank-you to Sue Daurio for loaning me the books and DVDs!

Schoolhouse Quilt Top

I finished the Schoolhouse quilt top this evening, and got it loaded on my quilting frame, along with the backing and batting.  I'll quilt it tomorrow.

Schoolhouse Blocks

Today I made seven blocks for the Schoolhouse quilt.  I’m making it from an old kit my sister-in-law gave me.  This will be for my father-in-law for Father's Day.

On the half-page of extremely sparse instructions it says, “While we have done our best to make this pattern accurate, we cannot be responsible for mistakes or printing errors.”

Well, it’s no wonder they wrote that, because the pattern is terrible, the instructions faulty, and the templates completely wrong.  Not knowing this, I put them all together at the same time – and then had to take them all apart at the same time, too, because the roof was a colossal mess.  The background triangles at either end were not only the wrong size, but also cut at the wrong angle to fit properly.  I had to redraw and recut them both.

And now that I’ve taken pictures of them, I see that a few of the chimneys are out in left field.  Bother.  I’ll fix them – tomorrow.  The pattern must’ve been made back before the days of computer-generated patterns (or testers, evidently).

Moral of the story:  Put one block of unknown patterns together before doing the whole works at once.

Label for Graceful Garden Quilt

Machine embroidered label made on my Bernina Artista 180.

I have now registered to enter two quilt shows -- HMQS (Home Machine Quilting Systems) in Salt Lake City next month, and AQS (American Quilting Society) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in August.

Next Tuesday, I take the quilt to Lincoln, where I will meet an appraiser at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.  She will appraise my quilt, and then I shall insure it well and ship it off to Salt Lake City. 

(hair standing up on end, just thinking about that)

Graceful Garden Quilt on Bed, and Hanging from Deck

This afternoon, I took the quilt to Andrew and Hester's house to take pictures of it on their bed.  They oohed and ahhed over it quite satisfactorily.

  

I snatched it back and absconded with it before they got too attached to it, throwing a stack of decorative pillows in their pathway to keep them from catching me.

Home again, Larry helped me hang it from the deck, and then I stood in the back yard and took pictures of it.  

When I got to Hester's house, I found Victoria in the kitchen, helping Hester polish and shine her new kitchen.  New light fixture... new cupboards, new curtains... new sink... It looks very pretty.